MESSINA – Two more prominent figures in Italian football will be at the event celebrating the 125th anniversary of the historic founding of the city’s football club. Two AC Milan and national team players, including midfielder Riccardo Montolivo and coach Roberto Donadoni, will be in Messina on December 1st. Goalkeeper Nelson Dida and former Messina and Juventus player Marco Storari will also be in attendance.
Justin Davis, CEO of Racing City Group and future president of ACR Messina, announced the news in a post on Instagram. As mentioned, he’ll be in town this weekend, but preparations from afar certainly aren’t stopping. The selections have been made more public with the announcements of the famous footballers who will be at the “Franco Scoglio” stadium in the coming weeks: Stefano Mauri and Vincenzo Iaquinta have already been announced, but Christian Abbiati, Angelo Di Livio, and Gianluca Zambrotta will also be there.
The two goalkeepers Dida and Storari
The Brazilian goalkeeper has left a lasting impression on AC Milan fans. With AC Milan, he won everything at club level: the league, the Coppa Italia, the Super Cup, the Champions League, and the Club World Cup. His international stint with Brazil, the 2002 World Cup champions, was equally successful, led by the “phenomenon” Ronaldo.
Marco Storari, one of the former Messina players who went on to become a successful player, started in Roma’s youth system. His four years at Messina, from 2003 to 2007 after Napoli, introduced him to the Italian league, leading to stints at prestigious clubs such as AC Milan and Juventus. Called up to the national team during the years he was defending the Biancocelesti goal, he won the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana with Juventus, and the Champions League in 2006/2007 as Dida’s assistant.
The profiles of Donadoni and Montolivo
Roberto Donadoni, a former midfielder and current coach, began his career in the Atalanta youth system, where he played for the first five years of his professional career. He followed this with ten years at AC Milan, where he is remembered as a player, and also boasts experience abroad in America and Saudi Arabia. He was part of the national team squads for Italy ’90 and the United States ’94.
As a coach, he subsequently served on the benches of Lecco, Livorno, Genoa, Napoli, Cagliari, Parma, Bologna, and, most recently, Shenzhen in China. In between, he also spent two years as coach of the Italian national team after their victory at the 2006 World Cup. After qualifying for the 2008 European Championship, Italy’s journey—and his—as coach of the national team—was interrupted by a quarterfinal exit against eventual winners Spain.
Riccardo Montolivo, a midfielder born in 1985, is best remembered for his stints at Fiorentina and then AC Milan, where he was captain in both. His career has almost been a footballing icon, having previously developed at Caravaggio and Atalanta, before spending his first years in the first team with the Bergamo club. He was a member of the national team for several years, including the youth team, with his best result coming in the 2012 European Championship, when Italy was defeated 4-0 by Spain in the final.
